Does anyone remember GEMCO? (San Diego, Glendale: purchasing, DMV, standard of living)

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by santiago de pampanga

we had gemco in the bay area also... the one in my area was in fremont on mowry road... it closed down in 1988 and became target, and a then lucky/albertson when target moved across the freeway about 5 years ago

::

Interestingly (and probably mentioned elsewhere in the thread) when I worked there I got a Lucky paycheck since at the time Gemco was owned by Lucky.

[lbuckn2005]

Originally Posted by RESCUE89

After reading all these entries, they took me on a short and quick blast to the past. Y'all might find some interest in this. Lucky Stores, Inc. was the owner of Gemco (westcoast) and Memco (eastcoast), Cloth World, Its-a-dily, Pick-a-dily (both young woman clothing stores), restaurant chain called Lions Stockade, Kragen Auto Parts, Checker Auto Parts, and Dorman Auto Parts, and of course Lucky Supermarkets. This business empire was started by a Mom and Pop grocery store in Norther California. The Mom and Pop store owned the patent to the shopping cart. When they introduced the shopping cart, they had to widen the aisles, and they had to train their customers on using the shopping cart, one cart on the rightside of the aisle while the cart coming at you would be on the leftside. Unfortunately, most of the business empire has dissolved.

Also, Yellow Front, Hancock Fabrics and a few others. They sold off several branches of their holdings in hopes of keeping Gemco / Memco and Lucky Groceries in business and to stave off the impending take over of the "one stop" shopping format that swarmed us from down south, Wal-Mart. It was unsuccessful sadly, I know many families that had a difficult time after that. They were a terrific company and helped my dad complete his business degree in the late 70s. Such a more simple time then now. Great memories!

[eureka1]

I shopped at GEMCO both in LA and in Hawaii.

[transitfan]

IIRC, Target bought most of the Gemcos. I recall in particular the Gardena store (Redondo Beach Blvd & Van Ness Av), and possibly the one in Culver City (Sepulveda near the 90 Freeway, or somewhere around there).

[simbared]

"Gemco was an American chain of membership department stores that was owned by San Leandro-based Lucky Stores, a California supermarket company which eventually became part of Albertsons. Gemco operated from 1959 until closing in late 1986. A number of the west coast stores were sold to Target which fueled their entry into California. Gemco had a version called Memco, also owned by Lucky Stores, that operated stores in the Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., areas."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemco

[spoonman1]

I remember going into a GEMCO as a kid in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego. From what I recall, it was basically a Target type store...in fact, I believe Target took over many of their stores.

[LuvSouthOC]

Man I used to shop at Gemco as a kid...

[Ceece]

Italian Ice at Gemco has always been a favorite childhood memory of mine. They were hip before it was trendy.

[Xavier O'Mack]

Originally Posted by shiphead

nice! There was one in Tucson,AZ that my mom worked for. She got me and my brother a pillow fight, those things were awesome!

Did your mom work at the Sunrise Place location or the Copper Creek Center location?

[VLWH]

Originally Posted by Xavier O'Mack

Did your mom work at the Sunrise Place location or the Copper Creek Center location?

Most likely won’t get an answer from that poster. That post is over 10 years ago and they haven’t posted on this forum in over 5 years.